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25 February 2008

Though the sky was stark black yesterday night at NSIT, Delhi where the Pakistani Rock Band - Jal was performaing live.The band which was started by the now famous Atif Aslam, and Gohar Mumtaz, which Atif later quit, now has Farhan Saeed as the lead singer and Aamir Sheraz as the bass guitarist along with Gohar.

The threesome along with the drummer Salman Albert rocked the night with their chart busters. Starting with a slowish track, they picked momentum with their famous 'Lamhey' and 'aadat'. Their slow redention of 'Ik Din Aayega' was a great hear, along with 'Bikhra hoon main' and 'Dil Haaray Pukaray'.With their patent pending, ooohoooohoooo and wohoooohohohohohoo...the band entertained to the fullest.

Farhan, their lead singer, has a voice very similar to Atif.Both Gohar and Aamir were great at the guitar and performed unfazed amidst the sporadic ' ATIF ' chants.

A night, along with Jal, and friends, of-course was a treat!

Songs Recommended: 'Ik Din Aayega', a beatiful motivational track which was written for the earthquake victims.

16 February 2008

Jodhaa Akbar, for a start, is a rare cinematic experience.It is opulent, grand, and it is classy, the traits seldom combined in Hindi Cinema.Combined with some power packed performances,the movie scores with its several high points among some average bits.With the khans, and the chistees, and the rajputanas, the forts and the armies, the horses and the elephants, the movie is spell bounding.

The movie is a huge success in recreating the Mughal era.It might be apt as a video lesson for the history students, studying about the mughal era.The sets and settings are grand.Even the Cooking bowls and the Food thaalis are huge(and mouth watering!).The war sequences are neck to neck with Hollywood movies like Troy.

The cast, typical to Ashutosh, is huge but spot-on. Hrithik stamps his acting prowess as the Shahi Mughal emperor with his flawless style and urdu dialogues. His effort and preparation for this role are evident as he tames the elephant and the sword with equal dedication and panache. Aishwarya looks stunning as the as the malikai hindustan and gives her second good performance after 'Guru'.As the men watch her with glee, the women are sure to boil with envy, as the petite Rajput princess hosts tonnes of sparkling jewelery. All other khans and rajas jell with the script.

The movie is about 3 and a half hour long, but it does not bore you a single moment.The first half bears a unique resemblance to the saas-bahu saga with Ila Arun as Maham Anga playing the wamp and plotting against the newly wed Jodhaa. The story picks up hugely in the second half and captures you till the end(though the ending again bears a mischievous resemblance to Brad Pitt and Troy).The choreography and picturization of 'azeemo-shan-shehenshah' is superb.

JA for me sets a standard for any period movie to come in the future.Hats of to the crew for the sheer effort and guts that are needed to make a film like this.

14 February 2008

This is one news that the CP metro station can do without.The huge and swanky Connaught Place metro station, the largest of the underground stations of the Delhi Metro is seeing a meteoric rise in the number of Pickpocketing cases in the past few months.The station is by far the most Crowded in the entire metro stretch and acts as the focal point for routes in different direction which provides a safe haven for the notorious sneak thieves.The regulars would have realized the increase in frequency of warning messages at the station and in trains coming and leaving.

Losing your wallet can become one hell of a bull-shitting experience.In a moment you are stripped off not only all your cash, but also the driving license, credit cards , RCs and documents that establish your very identity!

Two of my friends have had there wallets stripped off at the very station.But the efforts of the Metro officials have to be lauded here.One of the unlucky two actually got a call from the security officials the next day that they had nabbed the crook in the security cameras and the purse has been found!!They showed him the video in which the unsuspecting thief was taking out the purse from the back pocket of his bag.(just like the pic above)

Tips:

Avoid keeping the wallet and other valuables in Back-Pockets.

Lost, confused and distracted make easy targets.Be sure of your self.

Keep photocopies of all the documents that you keep in the wallet.

So the next time somebody bumps into you, check your pockets, there might be something missing!!

02 February 2008

Makes $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo!

The much rumoured acquisition has finally seen day light.The bid, which would consist of cash and Microsoft stock, values Yahoo shares at $31 a share, a 62% premium on Thursdays closing price.All eyes focus on Yahoo! now and whether they'll accept this one or not.

A clear move to consolidate and take over the Google challenge, this deal might give a shot in the arm to Microsoft's ailing search and online services. This is how the three giants stack up:

The interesting point here is that both Yahoo and Microsoft offer the same bouquet of services online.What can be the future of these services?1)Yahoo ID vs Live ID- These two IDs may be merged.Providing Common client for IM service.Not sure what they will do with the e-mail part.2)Yahoo Search vs Live search- I've never been impressed by the Yahoo search engine, so there might be a case of Microsoft Live taking over.3)Maps:Microsoft maps being a less used service will be promoted over Yahoo maps.4)Yahoo Search Marketing vs Microsoft AdCenter:Many believe that this is what the deal is for.Microsoft takes Google Head On in this one, with an eye on the soaring AD revenues online.Microsoft has already made its intentions clear with deals with Facebook and Digg for its ads. I guess Microsoft AdCenter will become the platform for the combined company.

Other than this, Yahoo's Flickr, Yahoo Answers and the social bookmarking site De.licio.us will also be huge pluses for Microsoft, specially Flickr, where it competes directly with Google's Picasa.

How about Branding??This is one puzzle which they will have to sort out.They don't want to 'Microsoftise'evrything and loose Yahoo's loyal user base, which would be more than glad to move to Google.They would have to be extremely careful on how to Brand the Popular services like e-mail, IM etc.They might just decide to leave things untouched, which might not be a bad idea at all!!

Why Microsoft is so keen on the Yahoo deal?- Microsoft's online arm is posting huge operating losses.Until now running its online business at a loss was no big deal for Microsoft as it was carving out fat margins in its software stronghold.But things are changing now.With everyone from Google, Sun and Adobe,fighting to bring desktop applications online, Microsoft's premium operating system and bundled products may lose their sheen in the near future.

- Google is clearly the search leader today with roughly 55% audience.The combination 'Microhoo' adds up to within competing range, with a lookout on eating into Google's bread and butter.

- A Yahoo is anyday more popular in countries like India vis a vis Microsoft leading to a back door entry in such emerging markets.

What happens to the employees?Hmmm...Yahooians better have their fingers crossed, because the merger creates a lot of similar workforce with varying cultures.Yahoo had already outcried for a lay off.There might be layoffs on certain sectors, but no body has commented on this.

All in all, i guess the time is right for Microsoft to come on strong. With Bill Gates retiring this year and the pressure on Steve Ballmer to take Microsoft to the next level, and with Google refusing to budge, this was inevitable.Users have nothing to complain though, as this fierce competition will see better services and applications in the future.